In memoriam: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr. med. h.c. Lore Zech; 24.9.1923 – 13.3.2013: Honorary member of the European Society of Human Genetics, Honorary member of the German Society of Human Genetics, Doctor laureate, the University of Kiel, Germany

Zinc transporter Slc39a8 is essential for cardiac ventricular compaction

“…Typical complications of LVNC include heart failure, ventricular arrhythmias, and systemic embolic events (8). Mutations in genes encoding sarcomeric, mitochondrial, cytoskeletal, and nuclear membrane proteins, and Notch signaling pathway components have been identified in LVNC patients (9)(10)(11)(12)(13), but the molecular mechanisms remain largely unresolved, reflecting a lack of understanding of the compaction process.…”

Molecular Cytogenetics: the first impact factor (2.36)

“…Recently an obituary of a key person in our field, Prof. Dr. Lore Zech, inventor of banding cytogenetics was published and highly recognized in the community [19]. To reflect the needs of our community, in addition to publishing articles recognizing key contributions from the field of molecular cytogenetics, we are very pleased to launch our new journal blog to promote interaction among researchers.…”

History and evolution of cytogenetics

“…Lore Zech discovered in the following year that all human chromosomes could be identified from one another by Q-banding [ 70 ]. Her pioneering work on Q-banding and its application to the recognition of chromosome aberrations in leukaemia and lymphomas are not sufficiently acknowledged [ 71 ]. Meanwhile, Pardue and Gall had demonstrated that isotopic labelled mouse satellite DNA (obtained by ultracentrifugation) could be hybridised in situ to the centromeres of denatured mouse chromosomes [ 72 ].…”

“…Trypsin G-banding [ 74 ] identifies each human chromosome unambiguously and has been widely adopted in diagnostic cytogenetics to detect aberrations previously invisible. Banding methods have contributed to the precision of gene mapping and cancer cytogenetics, for example in the discovery by Zech and Rowley that the Philadelphia chromosome is an unbalanced 9;22 translocation [ 71 , 75 ]. Many cancers are now thought to arise in stem cells which have undergone massive chromosomal rearrangements due to a single chromothripsis event [ 76 ] and banding is essential for their analysis.…”